There has being several reports about Ghanaian supporters, celebrity ambassadors and media men who were sent to Brazil to support the Black Stars.
Whiles supporters complain about facing some hardship because of the poor preparations and planning by the Sports ministry and its World Cup organizing committee for poor accommodation, lack of well-organized transportation from one point to the other among other things, there has also being complains about the need for the celebrity ambassadors and what role they are playing in Brazil.
In spite of all these every Ghanaian who was sent to Brazil is still doing their bit to lift the flag of Ghana high. After the heartbreaking defeat by USA on Monday June 16 and the reported hardships they are going on, Ghanaians in Brazil remained optimistic for a better game against Germany and truly the Black Stars performed way beyond expectation last Saturday June 21.
However the joy was cut short due to flight issues at Fortaleza airport after the match that left supporters, world cup ambassadors and pressmen in a state of confusion, anxiety and stress for over 12hours.
According to popular blogger Ameyaw Debrah who is currently in Brazil, the group returned to the Fortaleza airport from the stadium around 7pm (Brazil time) on Saturday evening and was told the flight would start check-in at 11pm.
This infuriated many of the supporters since they had not eaten the whole day because they had to leave their camp early and without breakfast. They started complaining that they were hungry, and since there was no real provision to feed them in transit, those who had money on them had buy from the restaurants in the airport.
The complains heightened when the check-in didn’t happen at 11 pm. The supporters became agitated and started screaming and making noise as though, that would help matters in any way. Around 12 midnight, the checking in began and we were all transported to a boarding gate, presumably to board the flight and head to Natal.
“Soon, it became apparent that boarding was not going to happen as stories started flying around that the airline carrying us had not completed some formalities, thus could not fly out of the airport unless some communication had been finalized between the airline in USA and authorities in Brazil. As the hours passed by the group which included senior members of the Ghana World Cup committee, Ghana’s world cup ambassadors Jackie Appiah, John Dumelo, Augustine Ahinful and C.K Akunnor, Amanzeba, Gyedu Blay Ambolley and Akosua Abdallah couldn’t hide their frustration. It became chaotic as some supporters started screaming and insulting officials. At around 4 am there was good news that the flight would soon take off…some sandwiches and drinks were brought in for breakfast before finally the plane took off for Natal around 5am”.
Currently things are quite stable at the Ghanaian camp as they wait in airiness for the decisive Ghana and Portugal match on Thursday June 26.